Afterlife

Remanded into custody, State Facility at Cedar Grove: one Johann Blück, clockmaker of Paterson, New Jersey.

Johann’s mania became unbearable to his wife. He would stay in his workshop day and night, neither eating nor sleeping. When asked why he was working so hard, Johann would jabber hysterically or mutter incoherently, his moods either morose or exultant, each extreme becoming more violent as though Joahnn, too, was governed by some wildly swinging internal pendulum.

The hornet’s nest appeared in the window of his room at Cedar Grove a few weeks after his suicide. All efforts to dislodge it failed.

Mystery solved! I couldn’t see that it’s a hornet’s nest, in fact I imagined several other things, not that.Don’t you love seeing what everyone creates from your photo? I love the idea of a buzzing brain, and then the wasp nest showing up. Wonderful!

His torment, whether portrayed as buzzing insects or incessant pendulum swings, is palpable. It makes you feel compassion both for the man driven to suicide and the family who had to put up with hiIm. One would hope his fate might be better today, thanks to pharmaceuticals!